Yesterday, the Notre Dame Alumni Association sent out the August edition of its e-newsletter, ND Today. Among the featured stories is a great article about Matt Knott (’92), a Monogram Club member and former manager for the Irish women’s swimming & diving team.

Knott graduated with a finance degree, and enjoyed a successful career with PepsiCo, before moving to the non-profit sector in 2008. Gabriela Leskur (’16), the Alumni Association’s writing intern, recently caught up with Knott to learn about his new position with Feeding America.

Leskur writes:

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick—the Gospels resound this call to action. Matt Knott ’92, the newly appointed President of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, has responded to this call.

In 2007, Matt Knott had a strong, successful career with increasing responsibilities at PepsiCo. Yet, despite what most of the world would constitute as success, Knott felt something was missing.

“I felt like I had gotten really good at my job at PepsiCo, and I was on the right path,” Knott said.

When Knott went on a Lenten retreat at his parish, Saint Raymond de Penafort in Mount Prospect, Ill., he started to reevaluate his career. His pastor’s talk about the power of vocation served as a catalyst.

“The pastor said, ‘Think about two concentric circles: one is what you are really good at and the other is what the world around you really needs. You know you have found your vocation when you can find the intersection of those two concentric circles,’” said Knott.